PRESS RELEASE: Benchmark Asset Managers Invests $1.35m in Microfinance Intermediary MicroVest

Original press release not immediately available online.

BETHESDA, UNITED STATES, April 25 – MicroVest is pleased to announce Benchmark Asset Managers recently added MicroVest I, LP (MV I) to the portfolio of two of their funds. Safe Haven Investment Portfolios, LLC-Community Impact Portfolio subscribed USD 350,000 for 5 years and Safe Haven Investment Portfolio, LLC-Private Fixed Income Portfolio subscribed USD 1 million for 3 years.

Benchmark, based in Philadelphia, helps high net worth individuals, families, religious organizations, foundations and non-profits integrate their values into their investing. Their principals are leaders in Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) with over fifty years of financial industry experience.

This year, Benchmark opened its Community Impact Portfolio, designed specially to offer investments in organizations and businesses that directly contribute to community development in the US and around the world. Not only does MV I fit with the portfolio’s social mission but it adds value by diversifying the funds’ exposure to emerging market assets. Benchmark was also attracted to the relatively uncorrelated nature of the assets in MV I to international and domestic market performance.

Gil Crawford, MicroVest’s CEO, commented, “We are excited to add Benchmark to the list of institutional investors in MV I. Clearly, the microfinance asset class still offers investors a risk-adjusted return; highly attractive in these difficult economic times.”

Benchmark specializes in identifying and cultivating SRI opportunities to construct portfolios that maximize social impact and financial strength. Asset allocation within each portfolio and across all portfolios minimizes risk and tailors investments to individual client needs. Benchmark’s screened index funds and fixed income investments form the core holdings of client portfolios. Working with each client to establish a customized asset allocation plan, decisions are jointly made whether to include investments in the High Impact Portfolio (a global equity fund focused on leaders in social and environmental business practices), Community Impact Portfolio (investments include community notes and funds, social equity and microfinance), or Green Real Estate Portfolio in addition to the core holdings. Benchmark’s Portfolios have been carefully constructed using extensive in-house research, and they represent the leading edge in achieving advanced social impact using modern portfolio theory.

MicroVest Capital Management, LLC is a global microfinance intermediary that provides financial capital to growing microfinance institutions (MFIs) in emerging markets. As the first private microfinance investment fund in the United States, MicroVest’s goal is to link capital markets to the entrepreneurial poor by expanding the capacity of profitable MFIs throughout the world. MicroVest’s first fund, MicroVest I, LP (MV I), is a USD 30 million private equity fund providing debt and equity capital to 19 MFIs in 13 developing countries, plus additional exposure via two regional facilities. In June 2007, MicroVest closed its second structured facility, a USD 39 million collateralized debt obligation arranged by the global investment bank Lehman Brothers. MicroVest also engaged as a sub-advisor to Calvert Foundation in their partnership with eBay’s MicroPlace—the first online microfinance brokerage. MicroVest is based in Bethesda, Maryland, and was founded by CARE, MEDA, and the Seed Capital Development Fund—three nonprofit organizations with longstanding credibility and investments in the microfinance industry.

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